Photo emerges of autographed Bryce Harper bat given to Ozzie Guillen

Olney Guillen, the son of Miami Marlins skipper Ozzie Guillen, recently uploaded a photo to Twitter of the now-infamous bat autographed by Bryce Harper that was presented last week to Ozzie as a sort of peace offering after Guillen publicly ripped the Washington Nationals rookie phenom for being “unprofessional.”

During a game between the Marlins and Nationals on July 15, Guillen complained to umpires and accused Harper of having too much pine tar on his bat. Following the game, Guillen criticized Harper and the entire scene provided a perfect opportunity for a prank, subsequently perpetrated by Harper’s teammates.

After having Harper autograph a bat, his teammates, namely Adam LaRoche, smeared the bat with pine tar and added a message, originally believed to read, “To my hero, Ozzie, love you.” Now that a photo of the bat has surfaced, it can be seen that it instead read, “To Ozzie — Your my hero!” No confirmation can be made whether the misspelling of “Your” was intentional or accidental. Either way, it was a pretty amusing prank, something I’m sure Ozzie even enjoyed.